The paper presents a biochemical study of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribozyltransferase (HRPT) in mutant clones of Chinese hamster cells showing an ability for complementation. In order to characterize HPRT, its kinetic properties, temperature sensitivity and electrophoretic mobility in polyacrylamide gel were assayed. According to the complementation map, the nine mutant clones studied can be divided into four complementation groups. All these clones have been shown to be mutants with respect to the HPRT structural gene, as they synthesize the structurally and functionally altered enzyme. A comparative biochemical analysis of HPRT in the four complementation groups revealed substantial differences in mutant enzymes from different groups; hence, the possibility of complementation on the molecular level. All biochemical characteristics of HPRT tested are similar in clones belonging to one and the same complementation group, which could indicate that they have the same structural variant of the enzyme, regardless of the manner in which the mutants were obtained. Having revealed the similarity and the distinctive features of mutant enzymes within complementation groups, the biochemical analysis confirmed the results of complementation analysis and added the structural information concerning mutant variants of the enzyme. Thus, the complementation map of the HPRT gene yielded by hybridological analysis has been tested and confirmed by an independent biochemical study. Complementation analysis applied to the HPRT mutants made it possible to identify qualitatively distinct groups. Each of these groups may be regarded as an allele of the gene, and the sum of the groups may be regarded as a series of multiple alleles.